“The weird girl rejects sexy and pretty to highlight ugly.”
For the presentation of his Gucci Spring Summer 2023 collection, Alessandro Michelle draws inspiration from his bizarre childhood spent with his two 'twin mothers' with a runway of fake twins. The impression of disturbing strangeness continued to the clothes, a mixture of references to preppy suits and Y2K, leopard and floral patterns, kimonos and winks to horror films as on a faux fur bag from which emerged a clone of Gizmo. Weird, did you say weird? It's also been the mantra of the Weird girl, the eccentric aesthetic of the moment.
Bella Hadid, Sidney Linn or Iris Law, this style that mixes hairy hats, patchwork miniskirts, cartoon-style graphic T-shirts has established itself as one of the most intriguing trends of the season with its 295 million views on TikTok. One of the most polarizing too…'Is it anti-fashion? Are people trying too hard just to look ugly?' No.
The weird girl is inspired by styles that already exist, a sort of synthesis of the most aesthetically improbable trends of recent years: normcore, Ugly Taste and Y2K. Some people cite the Harajuku style as their main reference; this Japanese counterculture, which had its heyday in the 2000s, circumvents the very strong normative pressure of Japanese society with eccentric fashion. Mixing Lolita styles alongside other subculture movements, creating a completely individualistic outfit.
Twenty years later, it is not surprising that this aesthetic is returning to center stage. This is a time of uninhibited maximalism that rejects the confines of trends to experimentally explore the truth of her own style. With one imperative for the weird girl: to have fun. 'I'm heading able to put on a look of walking towards the mirror and immediately going through the door,' confides Chloë Felopulos to Vogue France. 'Putting on a piece of clothing, liking it without having to think about it gives me self-confidence.'
The 'weird girl' is also available online on Vinted or Depop, and is part of the recycling and upcycling. Another burning question: 'does this style only work on Bella Hadid,' or most importantly, someone that's thin? Without a doubt, this aesthetic is not for everyone, but not for that reason. The phenomenon of the weird girl pushes to its climax the relativism of the blow which has become the current norm and the notion of irony. Because now you have to know how to decode in the way of dressing the third or fourth degree, which makes this style quite elitist. We wonder how far the ugly is able to go in fashion, and especially what will come after.
Words by Ghita Sadik
(@onlyangelvr on IG)
Edited by Lucy Eaton
(@llucyeaton on IG)